Packing Bags
by Artemis Ignitan
Summary: Gift!fic for immicolia on LiveJournal. Kiryuu's preparing to leave for his trip, but Crow has a few choice words to say to him before he goes...Kiryuu/Crow friendship, or something more, if you wish to read it that way.


**(A/N): WOW, I'M UPLOADING LOTS OF FICS, AREN'T I? ISN'T IT GREAT? EVEN THOUGH I REALLY SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON THOSE TWO MULTICHAP FICS, RIGHT? Pfffffft. **

**...I'll get to them. Honest. I really will. 38 I started transferring Chapter 8 for _One and Not the Same_ onto the computer today. That's something, right? Until I actually get off my lazy ass and keep transferring it, here's a fic I wrote for a friend on LiveJournal. **

Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!5D's  
Characters: Kiryuu, Crow  
Rating: PG(-13?) for mild language. Maybe. I haven't written it yet and by the time I write it I'll be too lazy to change it.  
Summary: Gift!fic for my buddy **immicolia**. Kiryuu's preparing to leave for his trip, but there are a few choice words Crow wants to have with him before he goes...Reverseshipping if you wanna see it that way.

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**Packing Bags**

It was an understatement to say that Crow wanted to get out of the hospital.

He itched, yearned, he fucking needed to get out of the hospital, and as soon as he could. He didn't give a damn that his left arm was still healing from that header he took after slamming his D-Wheel into Kuira-he'd gone through worse and nursed himself through it just fine. The nurses were just big pussies.

There was something important he needed to do, and he needed to do it before it was too late, fucked-up arm or no.

-----

It was a long while (a long, long while) before he was able to convince the nurses to release him (and yet they delayed him even more with all the goddamned paperwork-couldn't even understand half of the fancy-pants language they used on it). But (not) soon enough, he was out, striding away without looking back.

He soon found himself at a small motel, indiscreet and tucked out of the way (or as tucked-out-of-the-way as something could get in a glitzy, glamorous city like Neo Domino), asking the receptionist for the room number of a specific guest.

The receptionist answered (not before giving a rather intimidated glance at the numerous array of markers lining his face) that Kiryuu Kyosuke was in room thirteen.

Crow, being, well...Crow, thanked the receptionist with a wide grin, and barrelled his way up to room thirteen, barging through the door (without knocking, of course) in his usual overenergetic fashion (and no, he did not bruise his already battered arm on the door while slamming into it, nope, nope).

Kiryuu was, to put it simply, surprised. He hadn't expected such an overzealous greeting-or a greeting at all, actually.

And yet when he thought about it, in the back of his mind, he realized that he really should have expected Crow to pull something like this, given how he always was, always had been, and most likely always would be. He felt slightly guilty(only slightly, because there already was too much guilt to hold in more) that he had forgotten about this defining trait of one of his closest former friends.

He thought "former" because he wasn't sure if the other three still wanted to call him friend...

Kiryuu noted that Crow was breathing heavily, and a strange light glittered in his eyes. His mouth was set into gritting frown,

Overall, he looked _pissed_.

"Kiryuu..." he growled out, looking very much like he wanted to kick his brother's ass.

Kiryuu closed his eyes. Here it came...the anger against him for what he had done to them, for breaking the team apart, for wanting to kill them, for hating them...

"What do you think you're _doing_?!"

And Kiryuu's eyes opened wide, showing shock. He was mad at him for something he had done now, not in the past?

"...I'm...packing my bags, Crow."

Indeed he was. Bommer had told him that he was going back to his home country, which was incidentally near where the Nazca lines were. He thought by going there, he could make sense of what had happened to him, according to the story he had been told. He couldn't believe that he had become one of those Dark Signers that had fought agaisnt his friends, but...

"..._Why?_ Why are you leaving us again, Kiryuu?"

And again, Kiryuu was left in surprise. All of a sudden, the anger seemed to have morphed into grief...desparation. For a brief second, Kiryuu was mollified...

...until he found a fist heading straight to his face, too quickly for him to notice it in time nor to counter it. It pegged him straight on, knocking him to the floor.

He felt a bruise forming-but it was strange. That punch felt clumsy, awkward. It was then he noticed that Crow's left arm was in a sling-or had been in a sling. It seemed to have slipped out, now hanging at his side limply. That only served to make Kiryuu feel even guiltier, especially when Crow's next anguish-laced words came out.

"Why are you leaving our lives again, you...you...you _goddamned idiot_! You just came back!"

So...that what it was...

...they didn't want him to leave...

...they still wanted him?

"Crow...I..."

"We thought we had lost you forever!"

"..."

What could he say to pacify him? To show that he was grateful for them still wanting him?

"...Crow...this is something I need to do."

"...yeah? What for?" And Kiryuu couldn't help but smile a little-Crow sounded like a petulant little child that had been denied his toy.

"I want to repent...for what I've done, Crow."

And at that, Crow seemed...angry again? No...it was...wistfulness.

"...you never needed to."

"...never...?"

"...we never blamed you, Kiryuu. We could never forgive ourselves for losing you. 'Specially me, 'cause...Iwasthefirstonetoleaveandall." The last part was said hurriedly, and with a touch of timidity that Kiryuu didn't often see in the shorter man. He felt humbled that he was allowed such a rare glimpse when he didn't deserve that much friendship, that much trust...

"...thanks."

Now it was Crow's turn to look confused.

"Huh?"

"I said thanks. I was always worried that...you guys...hated me. Because you all left. I thought that I had been left alone again. But now I know that you guys forgive me. And it means a lot that you don't, especially coming from you, Crow. You know," and at this, there was an almost mischievious glint in Kiryuu's eyes, "'cause you were the first one to leave and all."

And at this, Crow looked mollified, if not a little sheepish.

"So are you still..."

Kiryuu took a look at the halfway-packed bags.

"...yeah. I think so."

"...but why? I thought-"

"I just need to do this, Crow. I can't help but feel that something inside me will reach peace with myself, if I do this. I want to just...come to terms. Cope, I guess. You know?"

Crow's expression was, for once, unreadable, as he looked at Kiryuu, then the floor. It was a long moment before he looked up at Kiryuu and spoke.

"You'd better come back, asshole."

Kiryuu was relieved to see that Crow's trademark cocky grin was back in place. He replied with a genuine smile of his own.

"You can count on that, Crow."

Crow grinned, then winced.

"...goddamn nurses are gonna kill me once they find out the first thing I did when I got out was fuck my arm over again."

And for the first time in a long time, Kiryuu Kyosuke let out a pure, genuine peal of laughter.

--FIN--

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**(A/N): ...Reviews, please? **


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